Chapter Summaries

Xiao Yuanjun insisted on sleeping in Zhang Yuan’s room, leaving him only space to meditate while she rested. The next morning, Cui Qiezhe asked Zhang Yuan to help evacuate people threatened by the True Dragon’s passage along the Ya East River, and Zhang Yuan heard the request as Cui Zhaowei arrived.

• Xiao Yuanjun followed Zhang Yuan to his room and claimed the bed, leaving him a narrow space to refine his Sword Qi overnight.
• The next morning, Zhang Yuan left the Brightheart Residence while Xiao Yuanjun was still asleep.
• Cui Zhaowei practiced swordsmanship as Cui Yuanxi praised her and wondered whether Zhang Yuan might become a Sword Immortal.
• Cui Qiezhe told Zhang Yuan that the True Dragon’s passage had devastated settlements along the Wen River and threatened towns along the Ya East River.
• Cui Qiezhe asked Zhang Yuan to travel with Cui Zhaowei and deliver paper boats so people along the river could escape, and Cui Zhaowei entered the study.

Liu Zezheng received a Pre-Heaven Supreme Treasure and several Pre-Heaven Spirit Treasures from a hidden [Woodcutter] and set off for the Ya Kingdom to cultivate. After delivering Cui Qiezhe’s protective paper boats, Zhang Yuan headed toward the dragon beneath the divine mountain.

• Liu Zezheng learned that the world had changed while he was unconscious and decided against entering the Ya Kingdom Capital City to reclaim more treasures.
• Liu Zezheng intercepted the masterless treasures sent by the [Woodcutter] and believed they were a sign of his heaven-reaching fortune.
• The [Woodcutter] watched Liu Zezheng fly toward the Ya Kingdom and remarked on his foolish confidence.
• Zhang Yuan used the [Golden Carriage Luan Chariot] to deliver Cui Qiezhe’s paper boats to towns and villages along the Ya East River.
• After finishing the deliveries, Zhang Yuan set out to visit the dragon undergoing the [Dragon-Squeezing Trial].

Zhang Yuan met Ao Ruo, the White Dragon suppressed beneath the [Dharma-Guarding Heavenly Gang], and learned that the Wen River Deng Clan had released it. After spotting a suspicious glimmer on the Ya East River, Zhang Yuan suspected the Deng Clan planned to use his [Dragon-Squeezing Trial] to kill Ao Ruo and exhaust his Calamity-Transforming Pill.

• Ao Ruo recognized Zhang Yuan as the person obstructing its [Dragon-Transformation Trial] and demanded that he bow, but Zhang Yuan insulted it and let it assume he was connected to the Western Bian Chu Clan.
• Zhang Yuan asked Ao Ruo about the Deng Clan, and Ao Ruo said the clan's Mountain-Bearing Celestial Person had lifted its suppression under an agreement with Human Race True Lords.
• After noticing a faint gleam of fire on the Ya East River, Zhang Yuan thanked Ao Ruo and departed; Ao Ruo warned him that the Dragon Clan could turn the dead into Dragonkind.
• During the three-day journey to the capital, Zhang Yuan refined his sword qi, then returned to Brightheart Residence and told Xiao Yuanjun that the Deng Clan might not let Ao Ruo survive.
• Zhang Yuan concluded that the Deng Clan intended to make him kill Ao Ruo in the [Dragon-Squeezing Trial], use up his Calamity-Transforming Pill, and then trouble him in his third trial.

Key plot points

• Zhang Yuan realizes that at least five—and perhaps as many as seven—True Lords from different factions are watching and maneuvering around him. He cannot determine what they want, which leaves him deeply uneasy.
• Xiao Yuanjun compares ordinary cultivators to ants trapped in a True Lord’s game: resisting may only draw attention and invite destruction. Zhang Yuan understands the warning but resolves to proceed carefully, pass the Three Trials, and reach the Celestial Person realm despite the unseen schemes.
• More than eighty days later, Divine Dragon Mountain begins to shake, signaling that Zhang Yuan’s trial to slay the dragon is approaching. Cui Qiezhe expects the protective manifestation around Zhang Yuan to expire that night and arranges for Cui Zhaowei to give him two Dharma Robes.
• Cui Qiezhe reveals to his wife that Zhang Yuan’s third trial concerns the Seven Emotions of Man and will be extremely difficult. Hoping a marriage between Zhang Yuan and Zhaowei might help him pass, he has been engineering chances for them to spend time together.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan remains anxious about being manipulated by powerful figures, but his resolve is tempered by Xiao Yuanjun’s advice: he intends to act without blindly challenging forces beyond his understanding.
• Xiao Yuanjun shows rare tenderness toward her disciple. Her ant parable counsels caution, and she promises to help him when the time comes.
• Cui Qiezhe reveals a matchmaking agenda, believing Zhang Yuan would make an excellent husband for his daughter—and possibly benefit from the relationship during his trial.
• Cui Zhaowei knows Zhang Yuan wears the same red robe simply because he dislikes the hassle of acquiring clothes. She and her father discuss his apparent lack of romantic interest, including his closeness to his master.
• Jiang Peilan questions her husband’s urgency. Cui Qiezhe explains that the True Lord warned him the third trial would be exceptionally difficult.

Significant themes

• Powerlessness and agency: Lesser cultivators are like ants in the schemes of True Lords, yet Zhang Yuan still seeks a way to act and fulfill his goal.
• Caution versus resistance: Xiao Yuanjun urges him not to provoke forces he cannot understand; Zhang chooses cautious perseverance rather than surrender.
• Hidden motives and manipulation: The True Lords’ plans remain opaque, while Cui Qiezhe quietly tries to influence Zhang Yuan’s future through matchmaking.
• Trials and emotion: The coming Seven Emotions trial frames personal relationships as potentially relevant to Zhang Yuan’s cultivation and survival.

Key plot points and events

• After three months of refining Sword Qi, Zhang Yuan has accumulated enough for one powerful sword strike. He receives two sets of dharma robes from Cui Zhaowei and learns that Cui Yuanxi is in seclusion refining heavenly gang.
• With the deadline for the dragon-squeezing trial approaching, Zhang Yuan plans to leave at midnight. He suspects the heavenly True Lords are using the trials to make him act as their weapon—and that a later trial may require him to kill someone he knows.
• A vision reveals that the White Dragon, Ao Ruo, has broken free and is heading down the Ya East River toward the capital. Zhang Yuan calculates its arrival and sets out to intercept it before it can destroy the city.
• As Ao Ruo travels downstream, floods devastate towns and ancient cities, though magical paper boats rescue their inhabitants. We learn that Ao Ruo has been weakened by its three-month confinement but remains confident its true-dragon strength will carry it through the trial.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan is more prepared for battle but remains wary of the larger game surrounding the trials. His concern shifts beyond defeating Ao Ruo to the possibility that the next trial will force him to kill an ally, his master, or someone else he knows. He briefly jokes to himself about how easily he could deal with Li Huixi.
• Cui Zhaowei delivers the robes on her father’s behalf, asks after Cui Yuanxi, and leaves promptly rather than staying with Zhang Yuan.
• Cui Yuanxi is absent, having entered seclusion to refine the heavenly gang sent by her clan.
• Ao Ruo remains arrogant despite its losses. It vaguely remembers Zhang Yuan and even regrets that he did not seek it out, imagining that he might have joined Dragonkind after death.

Significant themes

• Being used as a weapon: Zhang Yuan sees himself as a blade in the True Lords’ schemes, with each trial potentially targeting someone important.
• Power and vulnerability: Ao Ruo’s weakened state contrasts with its confidence, while Zhang Yuan’s single accumulated sword strike represents carefully prepared, concentrated force.
• The cost of conflict: The dragon’s passage brings widespread destruction, even though the people are rescued, underscoring the danger surrounding the trial.

As Ao Ruo’s True Dragon River Passage brought it toward the Ya Kingdom, Zhang Yuan prepared to face the dragon’s trial above the Ya East River. Chen Xinqiao returned home and entrusted her father with a sealed letter for the Immortal Master before Ao Ruo charged at Zhang Yuan.

• [Cloud-Ao Bearing Mountain True Lord] watched the signs of the true dragon’s passage and worried that Zhang Yuan had been manipulated into killing his own people.
• Chen Xinqiao returned to the Chen Residence, gave Chen Qinkuai a sealed letter for the Immortal Master, and told him to seek help from the Aohai Cui Clan if trouble arose after she left.
• Zhang Yuan and Xiao Yuanjun arrived above the Ya East River, where cultivators and members of several clans gathered to watch the trial.
• Xiao Yuanjun went down to the riverbank while Zhang Yuan remained in the air to face Ao Ruo.
• Ao Ruo spotted Zhang Yuan blocking its way and charged at him, its roar unsettling the gathered cultivators.

Zhang Yuan passed the Dragon-Squeezing Trial by killing Ao Ruo with a single sword strike, stunning the cultivators who witnessed it. Deng Qiuzhi immediately attacked him, while Xiao Yuanjun was held back from intervening, and the chapter ended as Deng Qiuzhi’s palm struck Zhang Yuan’s chest.

• Zhang Yuan resisted Ao Ruo’s Dragon’s Roar and unleashed a sword strike combining his divine abilities with refined Sword Qi.
• Ao Ruo tried to flee and sought Deng Qiuzhi’s help, but Deng Qiuzhi refused to save him, and Zhang Yuan’s strike split the dragon in two.
• The riverbank cultivators were stunned by Ao Ruo’s death, while Cui Zhaowei judged Zhang Yuan’s strike stronger than her own.
• After Zhang Yuan passed the Dragon-Squeezing Trial, Deng Qiuzhi summoned a mountain to attack him, but Xiao Yuanjun destroyed it with her Weather and Season Mystic Pearls.
• Li Wangshuo blocked Xiao Yuanjun as Deng Qiuzhi appeared before Zhang Yuan and struck his chest with a palm.

Plot points and events

• Zhang Yuan survives Deng Qiuzhi’s devastating palm strike, using [Golden Chariot] to flee, but his chest is badly destroyed.
• Deng traps him inside the [Ten-Thousand-Wall Heaven-Enclosing Dao Domain] and attacks again, this time aiming to kill him with a blow to the head.
• To survive, Zhang Yuan temporarily raises his Dao status beyond that of a Perfected Person by using [Great Cavern Yin-Spectacle Immortal Domain] and [Heaven-Sundering Four Absolutes Immortal Domain].
• The forced elevation makes Heaven and Earth reject him and begins pulling him toward the Outer Chaos. His body and cultivation cannot withstand the Celestial Person status for long, and he still cannot escape Deng’s Dao Domain.
• Zhang Yuan realizes Deng is deliberately pressuring him to trigger his third trial. He identifies it as the [Dust-Fate Pass], which requires severing mortal ties. Suspecting the True Lords designed the trial to make him kill someone, he thinks of a cold-faced young girl.

Character development

• Zhang Yuan proves resourceful and decisive under extreme danger, but his desperate power-up exposes the limits of relying on Dao status without the realm, body, and abilities to support it. He also begins to understand that his trials may be manipulated for others’ purposes.
• Deng Qiuzhi appears to be controlling the encounter rather than simply trying to kill Zhang Yuan. His measured pressure suggests he intends to force the trial to emerge.

Character interactions

• Deng repeatedly attacks and confines Zhang Yuan, while Zhang uses evasion and temporary power elevation to survive.
• Their encounter becomes a contest of pressure and insight: Zhang recognizes Deng’s restraint as deliberate, and infers that Deng is trying to provoke his third trial.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: A higher Dao status is dangerous when the body and cultivation cannot support it.
• The cost of advancement: Celestial status brings not only power but rejection by Heaven and Earth and the threat of forced ascension.
• Manipulation and agency: Zhang suspects his trials have been arranged by the True Lords to turn him into an instrument.
• Mortal attachment: The [Dust-Fate Pass] frames severing human bonds—even through killing—as a condition of transcendence.

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Yuan realizes Chen Xinqiao is the remnant-soul reincarnation of a powerful Outer Dao cultivator. The Lords’ schemes have been designed to make him kill her and end that cultivator’s existence.
• The True Lord of Ten Thousand Cycles of Balance reveals himself and explains that Zhang Yuan’s three trials were engineered to test his Dao heart. He offers him a way out: kill Chen Xinqiao, pass the Dust-Fate Pass, and attain Celestial Person status.
• Zhang Yuan refuses to kill her, asking why she matters so much. The True Lord withholds the answer and leaves; Deng Qiuzhi then attacks, intent on killing Zhang Yuan himself.
• As Zhang Yuan prepares to escape through the Gate, he discovers that he has already passed the Dust-Fate Pass.
• In Liu Family Village, Chen Xinqiao understands that the Golden Core True Lords will prevent her from forming an Outer Dao core. Knowing she is likely to die, she uses the porcelain bottle Zhang Yuan left behind—still carrying a trace of their Karma—to kill herself, allowing him to pass the trial.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan remains committed to his Dao rather than yielding to the trial’s coercion. Though he recognizes the cost of refusing, he will not personally sacrifice Chen Xinqiao for advancement.
• The True Lord of Ten Thousand Cycles of Balance reveals himself as the architect of Zhang Yuan’s trials, manipulating circumstances to pressure him into severing his ties and killing Chen Xinqiao.
• Deng Qiuzhi shifts from pursuing the trial’s plan to attacking Zhang Yuan out of personal hatred.
• Chen Xinqiao accepts her likely death with composure. Her final act uses her karmic connection to Zhang Yuan to help him, though she dies without knowing his name.
• The chapter’s central interaction is a stark contrast: the True Lord urges Zhang Yuan to “cultivate himself alone,” while Chen Xinqiao’s sacrifice demonstrates the enduring power of connection and selflessness.

Significant themes

• Dao heart versus expediency: Zhang Yuan is tested on whether survival and advancement justify betraying his principles.
• Fate and manipulation: The trials and the characters’ encounters are shaped by powerful forces, yet their choices still matter.
• Karma and sacrifice: The porcelain bottle’s lingering connection enables Chen Xinqiao to pass the trial for Zhang Yuan through her death.
• Self-cultivation versus human bonds: The True Lord frames isolation as the path to survival, while Chen Xinqiao’s final act challenges that ideal.

Key plot points and events

• Zhang Yuan breaks through to become a Foundation-Building Celestial Person, his body, soul, and Dao Status advancing naturally. The heavenly hostility he once felt disappears, though he still needs a dao domain to anchor himself within a hundred days.
• He returns to Chen Xinqiao’s family home and discovers that both her life force and soul are gone. She cannot be revived.
• At the Chen residence, Chen Qinkuai welcomes him and offers him Xinqiao’s sealed letter. Zhang Yuan takes it but cannot bring himself to read it.
• Xiao Yuanjun finds Zhang Yuan and asks what he needs. He tells her he is going to the Hengyang Lu clan; she promises to handle their Celestial Person and bear the consequences.
• Furious at the Lords who used him as their instrument, Zhang Yuan decides to kill on his own terms. He uses the chain of [myriad coexistence] to connect to the Wenshui Deng clan.
• In the Great Void, the True Lords debate Zhang Yuan’s trials and his future. The True Lord of Ten Thousand Cycles of Balance moves to attack him, but Cloud Ao intervenes with his fishing rod.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan gains immense power but feels no triumph after Xinqiao’s death. Grief turns into resolve: he refuses to remain a pawn and sets out to confront those he believes responsible.
• Xiao Yuanjun proves herself a steadfast protector, offering to take on the Lu clan’s Celestial Person and shoulder the fallout.
• Chen Qinkuai remains grateful to Zhang Yuan and assumes Xinqiao is away in the East Sea, unaware that she has died.
• The True Lords reveal conflicting views: some praise Zhang Yuan’s transformation and consider recruiting him, while others debate killing him or warn against provoking the force behind him. Cloud Ao directly restrains the Ten Thousand Cycles Lord.

Significant themes

• Grief and irreversible loss: Xinqiao’s death is final, despite Zhang Yuan’s new power.
• Agency versus manipulation: Zhang Yuan rejects being used by higher powers and chooses his own targets.
• Loyalty and support: Xiao Yuanjun’s immediate offer to help contrasts with the True Lords’ political scheming.
• Power and responsibility: Zhang’s breakthrough grants him vast strength, but it cannot undo personal loss or free him from the consequences of his choices.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• The True Lords’ contest continues: True Lord of Ten Thousand Cycles of Balance tries to overpower Cloud Ao Bearing Mountain True Lord by channeling external forces into his body. But Cloud Ao remains completely immovable, illustrating the clash between their metal-position powers: borrowed, limitless reinforcement versus innate, mountain-like physical strength. The other True Lords watch without intervening.
• Zhang Yuan locates Wenshui Deng: Using a karmic link to a disciple whose perceptions he previously altered, Zhang Yuan crosses space to reach Wenshui Deng’s secluded base on Cloud Brocade Mountain.
• Deng Qingyang completes his breakthrough: After two and a half months, he finishes refining a strand of illuminating heavenly dipper and becomes a Nine-Turn Qi Refinement Perfected Person. He discovers his third life-bound divine ability, Falling Leaf Divination, which reveals whether fortune or disaster lies ahead.
• The warning proves real: Deng Qingyang tests the ability and receives the message “Great calamity looms.” He spots Zhang Yuan hovering above the mountain, recognizes him as the feared demon from the Ya Kingdom, and panics at the possibility that the mountain’s protectors are absent—or that Zhang Yuan has reached the Celestial Person realm.
• The attack begins: Familiar Three-Colored Radiance sweeps down over Cloud Brocade Mountain. Deng Qingyang flees by rolling off a cliff, with no time to do anything else.

Character developments

• Cloud Ao Bearing Mountain True Lord is shown as extraordinarily steadfast, resisting even force amplified without limit by an opponent’s ability.
• True Lord of Ten Thousand Cycles of Balance demonstrates how his power can turn external forces into overwhelming strength, though it cannot dislodge Cloud Ao.
• Deng Qingyang emerges as cautious and survival-minded. Having witnessed the Three-Colored Radiance destroy powerful cultivators, he values a defensive ability over an offensive one. His new divination power immediately warns him of danger, though fear overwhelms him when he recognizes Zhang Yuan.
• Zhang Yuan appears as a formidable threat, able to use a disciple’s karmic connection to reach Wenshui Deng’s hidden headquarters.

Significant themes

• Different forms of strength: The opening contrasts strength drawn from the world with strength embodied in oneself.
• Survival over glory: Deng Qingyang’s choice of a divination ability reflects his belief that staying alive matters more than gaining another attack.
• Warnings and fate: Falling Leaf Divination correctly foretells disaster, but knowing danger is coming does not necessarily provide a way to stop it.
• False security: Wenshui Deng’s remote mountain and presumed protectors offer little comfort once Zhang Yuan arrives and attacks.

Character interactions

• The True Lords observe the contest between Cloud Ao and Ten Thousand Cycles without interfering; Jingyang Li admires Cloud Ao’s immovability.
• Zhang Yuan reaches Wenshui Deng through a karmic link to a disciple whose perceptions he had previously altered.
• Deng Qingyang has no direct exchange with Zhang Yuan; instead, he recognizes him, speculates about the mountain’s defenses, and tries to escape as Zhang’s Three-Colored Radiance descends.

Plot points and events

• Zhang Yuan returns from Cloud Brocade Mountain after using Three Calamities Returning to Origin Divine Radiance to wipe out nearly everyone at the Wen River Deng Clan’s stronghold. He suspects the True Lords tacitly permitted the attack, and decides not to pursue survivors who may be under their protection.
• Back at Brightheart Residence, he opens Chen Xinqiao’s farewell letter. She reveals she was the reincarnation of an ancient outsider, True Person Qingxu, and says she died repaying Zhang Yuan’s kindness after the True Lords made him their instrument. She urges him to become more decisive if he hopes to reach the rank of True Lord.
• Zhang Yuan suppresses his grief and anger at True Lord Imperial Balance Myriad Turns, recognizing that challenging a True Lord would be beyond his power. He reflects on his new Foundation Establishment celestial status and resolves to ask his absent master, Xiao Yuanjun, about forming a Dao Domain.
• The world suddenly darkens under a surge of yin energy. A gigantic, official-robed figure approaches the capital and identifies itself as the Day Patrol God, an inspector of the Netherworld Administration. It announces that, by a True Lord’s decree, Zhang Yuan’s name must be entered on the register.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan acts on his anger against the Deng Clan but remains wary of the True Lords’ schemes. Chen Xinqiao’s letter deepens his grief and resentment, yet he continues focusing on his cultivation and survival.
• Chen Xinqiao, though absent, is characterized through her candid letter as grateful, self-sacrificing, and concerned for Zhang Yuan’s future.
• Xiao Yuanjun is away, leaving Zhang Yuan without guidance as he adjusts to his new realm.
• The True Lords remain unseen but shape events: their likely political maneuvering surrounds both Zhang Yuan’s attack and Chen Xinqiao’s death.
• The Day Patrol God initiates a new confrontation by arriving to register Zhang Yuan.

Significant themes

• Power and vulnerability: Becoming a celestial greatly elevates Zhang Yuan, but he is still helpless against True Lords and subject to higher authorities.
• Grief, debt, and sacrifice: Chen Xinqiao frames her death as repayment, while asking Zhang Yuan not to blame himself.
• Political manipulation: Powerful figures treat people and clans as pawns, and apparent permission or protection may conceal competing agendas.
• The cost of advancement: Zhang Yuan’s new status brings vast abilities, but also obligations and scrutiny from the Netherworld Administration.

Zhang Yuan learned that attaining celestial standing required him to proclaim a Dao Epithet so the Nether Bureau could register him. After he chose [Return to True], the Day Patrol God recorded his name and granted him an eight-hundred-year lifespan, while Xiao Yuanjun warned him to forge his Dao Domain before the Wen River Deng Clan's True Lord came after him.

• The Day Patrol God immobilized Zhang Yuan and demanded that his name be entered on the Nether Bureau's register, but repeated himself without explaining what he needed.
• Xiao Yuanjun arrived and explained that a celestial person had to proclaim a Dao Epithet for the Nether Bureau to record it and fix their lifespan at eight hundred years.
• Zhang Yuan chose [Return to True] as his Dao Epithet, and the Day Patrol God recorded him as [Return to True Celestial Person] Zhang Yuan before departing.
• Zhang Yuan asked whether Chen Xinqiao could be reborn, and Xiao Yuanjun said she was utterly dead with no soul fragment remaining.
• Xiao Yuanjun warned Zhang Yuan that the Wen River Deng Clan's True Lord would target him and urged him to forge his Dao Domain, promising to handle the traps herself.

After becoming a Celestial Person, Zhang Yuan chose a new talent and studied the Foundation Establishment chapter of the Pre-Heaven True Law Self-Salvation Great Method. He left off preparing to forge his Dao Domain and planned to ask Xiao Yuanjun about the next steps once she woke.

• Zhang Yuan asked Xiao Yuanjun whether she had been injured, and she said she had searched for the Wen River Deng Clan’s Celestial Persons but found none.
• Xiao Yuanjun gave Zhang Yuan the Foundation Establishment chapter and went to sleep beside him.
• Zhang Yuan reviewed three talent options and chose [Basking in the Spring Breeze] to gain a trace of goodwill from anyone who met him.
• Zhang Yuan read about Celestial Person cultivation, learning that it involved refining the twelve yin-yang qi and the ten true natures of the five aggregates.
• Zhang Yuan found no explanation of how to cultivate those elements and decided to begin forging his Dao Domain while waiting for Xiao Yuanjun to wake.

Plot and events

• Zhang Yuan enters the Chaos Great Void, a realm within the interstice of Heaven and Earth where matter, space, and time do not exist. Foundation-Building Celestial People forge Dao Domains there to anchor their elevated Dao Status and avoid being drawn back into chaos.
• He uses his Life-Bound Divine Ability, [Great Cavern Yin-Spectacle Immortal Domain], as a blueprint to create a stable miniature world. Because the Imagoes within the ability already form a flawless cycle, the process is unusually easy for him.
• The resulting domain is filled with dark seas, poisonous plants, mountains, and baleful energies. Zhang Yuan is uneasy that its black glow could make him look like a Demonic Dao cultivator, so he names its palace Immortal Palace and declares the domain complete.
• The scene shifts to Sun-Moon Cliff, where Dongfang Caibai serves tea to Li Huixi, the powerful Heaven-and-Earth Lesser Monarch, and Li Zhongshuang. Li Zhongshuang reports that Zhang Yuan has attained Celestial Person.
• Li Huixi invents the Daoist Name “Return to the True” for Zhang Yuan, then explains that Zhang’s chances of attaining a Golden Core are poor: the remaining metal positions are scarce and largely spoken for, and Zhang has no powerful backer.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhang Yuan successfully completes a major cultivation milestone, securing his Dao Status with a Dao Domain. His practical, slightly image-conscious humor shows through in his dissatisfaction with its sinister appearance.
• Li Zhongshuang has spent six months monitoring Zhang Yuan at Li Huixi’s instruction, worried that the grudge-bearing Lesser Monarch might kill him. She respects Li Huixi and treats him as her Little Ancestor.
• Li Huixi appears calm and authoritative, but his earlier grudge against Zhang remains relevant. He recognizes Zhang’s promise while judging that talent alone cannot overcome the political and material barriers to Golden Core attainment.
• Dongfang Caibai serves the two guests deferentially, aware of their immense power and influence.

Significant themes

• Cultivation as self-anchoring: A Celestial Person must create a stable Dao Domain to keep their elevated Dao Status from dissolving into chaos.
• Attainment depends on more than talent: Golden Core opportunities are limited and controlled by existing interests; aptitude and temperament may not be enough without backing.
• Appearance versus reality: Zhang’s “Immortal Domain” looks demonic, while its name and his intent present a more respectable image.

Cui Qiezhe asked Zhang Yuan to investigate a change at Mount Junya while helping Cui Zhaowei complete her Ascending Mountain Pass. Zhang Yuan accepted after Cui Qiezhe offered a Pre-Heaven True Treasure, and he and Cui Zhaowei set out at once.

• Li Huixi reconsidered how to bring Zhang Yuan to her and decided she would rather have him come willingly.
• Cui Qiezhe and Cui Zhaowei visited Zhang Yuan at Brightheart Residence, and Zhang Yuan exchanged Dao epithets with Cui Qiezhe as a fellow Celestial Person.
• Cui Qiezhe asked Zhang Yuan to investigate the change at Mount Junya and escort Cui Zhaowei as she climbed the mountain for her Ascending Mountain Pass.
• Cui Qiezhe offered Zhang Yuan an unclaimed Pre-Heaven True Treasure as a reward, and Zhang Yuan accepted.
• Zhang Yuan departed for Mount Junya with Cui Zhaowei.

Zhang Yuan and Cui Zhaowei arrived at Mount Junya, where a dazzling barrier and rumors of treasures had drawn cultivators from across the region. As Zhang Yuan learned how Celestial Persons’ mystic wonders differ from ordinary divine abilities, rumors revealed that a Pre-Heaven Supreme Treasure and a True Lord Inheritance might be emerging on the mountain.

• Zhang Yuan and Cui Zhaowei found many cultivators gathered outside Mount Junya, which was shielded by seven-colored precious light.
• Zhang Yuan identified five Celestial Persons at the mountain, including Li Jiansong, Deng Yici, and the rogue cultivator Qin Tianyi.
• Cui Zhaowei explained that cultivation stages were only rough measures of Celestial Person strength, while mystic wonders could let them defeat opponents at higher stages.
• Zhang Yuan asked how divine effects could be transformed into mystic wonders, puzzling Cui Zhaowei with his lack of basic knowledge.
• Zhang Yuan overheard cultivators say that a Pre-Heaven Supreme Treasure and a True Lord Inheritance were emerging on Mount Junya, along with lesser opportunities for Qi Refining cultivators.

Zhang Yuan suspected Mount Junya’s upheaval was bait for a True Lord’s chosen pawn and watched the Celestial Persons gather. When Qin Tianyi learned the True Lord Inheritance mattered to his cultivation, he tried to use Zhang Yuan to divert the Wen River Deng Clan’s attention.

• Zhang Yuan suspected a True Lord had arranged Mount Junya’s opportunity for someone else and considered Qin Tianyi and several young cultivators as possible targets.
• Qin Tianyi noticed Zhang Yuan watching him and exchanged greetings with him before Shen Qiulan and Pei Chongtian approached.
• Li Jiansong introduced himself, but Deng Yici insulted the Jingyang Li Clan and declared the Wen River Deng Clan would take the Pre-Heaven Supreme Treasure and True Lord Inheritance.
• Qin Tianyi realized the inheritance was linked to his cultivation and decided he needed someone to draw Deng Yici’s attention away from him.
• Qin Tianyi loudly pretended to recognize Zhang Yuan as an old friend, exposing him to everyone’s gaze and angering Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan reunited with Qin Tianyi’s group at Mount Junya, where Deng Yici recognized him as an enemy of her clan and offered to make him her male consort. When the mountain’s inheritance barrier opened, its deadly restrictions killed several cultivators and badly injured Qin Tianyi, who tried to reach the summit with a mystic wonder.

• Qin Tianyi introduced Zhang Yuan to the group, and Li Jiansong failed to recognize him while Deng Yici identified him as the man who destroyed Cloud Brocade Mountain.
• Deng Yici offered Zhang Yuan a chance to become her male consort, but he refused and said he was already betrothed; Cui Zhaowei rebuffed Deng Yici’s insult.
• Mount Junya’s seven-colored light faded, and Qi Refining Perfected Persons who flew toward it or used divine abilities exploded into clouds of blood.
• Shen Qiulan determined that Mount Junya’s pre-heaven law forbade flying and divine abilities, warning that those who broke the restriction would be reduced to ashes.
• Qin Tianyi used [Thunder Rumbles] to rush toward the summit, but a purple thunderbolt struck him and sent him crashing down the mountainside, badly injured.

Zhang Yuan and Cui Zhaowei climbed Mount Junya, where the lingering might of a dead True Lord suppressed cultivators and brought hidden opportunities to the surface. Shen Qiulan and Pei Chongtian stole a young cultivator’s Pre-Heaven True Treasure, but Zhang Yuan appeared to claim the sword for himself.

• Zhang Yuan used [Great Grotto Yin-Scenery Immortal Domain] to restore his Celestial Person Status after Mount Junya’s pressure suppressed it, then continued uphill with Cui Zhaowei.
• Deng Yici climbed alone while Shen Qiulan and Pei Chongtian changed their appearances and followed other cultivators in search of opportunities.
• Qin Tianyi revealed that he had used a delaying tactic to reach halfway up the mountain ahead of the others and pursue its treasures and inheritance.
• Shen Qiulan and Pei Chongtian followed a young cultivator, then seized the [Broad Thunder Sword] after he obtained it.
• Zhang Yuan appeared and said the sword was fated to become his Ritual Sword, asking Miss Zhaowei to agree.